The present invention generally relates to turbine subassemblies and, more particularly, is concerned with a turbine brush seal protection device and method.
A gas turbine subassembly has a stator, a rotor and a brush seal of annular configuration attached to the stator. U.S. Pat. No. 5,613,829 to Wolfe et al., which is assigned to the same assignee as the present invention, discloses such a gas turbine subassembly.
The brush seal is generally installed before the rotor at an intermediate stage in the turbine assembling process. The brush seal surrounds the rotor after installation of the rotor. Typically, bristles of the brush seal are exposed while workers perform a variety of operations including heavy lifting in close proximity to the brush seal bristles. It is not uncommon for workers to walk inside the turbine casing and, possibly, to walk on the brush seal during installation of various turbine components. Damage to the bristles of the brush seal has been observed in turbine installations.
Though brush seals often have a coating of wax on the bristles, this does not provide adequate protection of the bristles during turbine installation. Currently, there is no known means for adequately protecting the bristles of brush seals during turbine installation. Consequently, a need exists for an innovation which will provide a solution to the aforementioned problem in the prior art without introducing any new problems in place thereof.